


Sign Of The Times

by DearSpencerReid



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-15 06:48:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13607853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DearSpencerReid/pseuds/DearSpencerReid
Summary: When the time has come for your story to end, you can’t leave without talking to Spencer just one last time.





	Sign Of The Times

_He wasn’t supposed to have a gun._

Adrenaline coursed through your veins, the full moon hanging above the extensive field acted as your guiding light towards the evading unsub.

Your lungs burned, unprepared for the foot chase that you were currently being lead on. The unsub had been profiled as a sociopathic serial killer with a modus operandi of stabbing, leading you and Morgan to believe that bringing him into custody would be fairly simple.

However, consequent to your SUV pulling into his driveway, the unsub fled into the fifteen acres of land he lived on — subsequently proving your assumptions to be false and causing Morgan and yourself to diverge and cover more ground separately. 

_He wasn’t supposed to have a gun._

Fallen tree branches snapped underneath your feet as your eyes locked onto the frame of the unsub, stood just a few feet ahead of you with his back towards you and his hands tucked into his jean pockets.

“Keith Hollenbeck,” you loudly announced yourself, settling a hand onto your gun holster as it was the only protection you had, “Raise your hands where I can see them.”

Hollenbeck seemed to obey your order, a breath you had unknowingly been holding in escaped your lips as he slowly turned to face you. His arrest seemed just in sight, meaning that your return back home to Spencer was soon to follow.

_He wasn’t supposed to have a gun._

Visions of Spencer wrapping his arms around your waist tightly trailed through your mind. His hot breath whispering endless declarations of how much he missed you while you were gone and apologizing for the paperwork that held him back at Quantico instead of accompanying you.

But as Hollenbeck now stood completely facing you, hands coming to empty his pockets, your visions of reuniting with Spencer were shattered in an instant.

There was no time to react or draw your own gun before his apathetic finger came to pull the trigger and release a fatal blow that collapsed your body to the earth below.

_You were supposed to come back._

Excruciating pain radiated throughout your body instantly. Instinctively, you settled your hand against the source of agony but hissed at the contact. Rapidly pulling it away, fear shot your body at the revelation of the crimson liquid coating your fingers.

Just for a second, you managed to push through the harrowing pain and prop yourself up onto your elbows just enough to see that the bullet had fortuitously entered the gap of flesh unprotected by your kevlar vest. The rapidly growing pool making it evident that a major artery had been hit.

And within an instant, you knew it was inevitable.

_You were supposed to come back._

Morgan could have wound up anywhere on the acreage by now, and even if he had heard the gunshot, who knew how long it would take for him to find your hemorrhaged form.

Calling for medical help would be just as futile, the chances of them reaching you in time were nearly double that of Morgans.

Shifting your weight ever so slightly, a wave of nauseating pain crashed over your body as your maroon stained fingers pulled your phone from the back pocket of your equally stained jeans. Help may have been unavailing, but even in your ebbing state, your heart ached to hear the endearing voice of Spencer, just one last time.

_You were supposed to come back._

A thumbprint of blood smeared across the phone’s screen as you shakily navigated your way through your recent call log, Spencer’s contact thankfully being at the very top.

The dial tone seemed to be never ending, quiet pleas leaving your quivering lips, “Please answer the phone. God, please, pick up the phone, Spencer.”

“Hello, there beautiful,” the obvious smile in his greeting that regularly eased your troubled mind now brought with it a pang of grief, “I wasn’t expecting you to call me tonight.”

_We were supposed to be together._

“I had a few minutes to spare,” your voice rang out clearer than you expected it do, “Just wanted to hear your voice.”

“I’ve missed hearing your voice too,” an image of Spencer’s blushing cheeks played from your memory, “Do you think that you’ll be coming home soon?”

“Yeah,” your voice wavered at the lie, eyes grows clouded with tears yet shed, “I don’t think it will last too much longer.”

_We were supposed to be together._

“Spence,” you continue on before Spencer has the chance to express his elation of your return home, “I love you. So, so much.”

“I love you too, sweetheart,” even over the slight static of the phone he manages to convey genuine devotion.

One of the tears that had been threatening to escape finally succeeds in doing so, “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Spencer.”

_We were supposed to be together._

“Y/N?” there was an obvious waver in your voice, one that didn’t take a profiler to detect, “Is everything alright?”

“Everything’s fine, I promise,” your lungs began to ache once again, growing weaker, “Just wanted you to know that.”

“I would be nothing without you, Y/N,” Spencer makes his own proclamation of love, “I love you more than I could ever say.”

_You were supposed to be my forever._

A cloud of haze had come to build over your mind, your body significantly weaker than it was just minutes ago, “I’ve got to go now, Spencer.”

“Okay,” Spencer huffed out, pulling a watery laugh from you at the thought of him pouting, “I’ll see you soon, sweetheart.”

“See you soon, love,” you couldn’t bring yourself to say goodbye. Saying goodbye would mean you were leaving. Saying goodbye would make it final.

_You were supposed to be my forever._

With a click on Spencer’s side, the phone slipped from your fingers as an exasperated sob fell from your lips. Reality had finally set in, and it hurt far worse than the lesion stealing your breath away did.

Your heart did not break at the thought of the late nights that would no longer be spent swaying slowly in the middle of your kitchen while Celine Dion played softly in the background. It did not break at the thought of no longer laying in bed on a Sunday morning, Spencer threading his fingers through yours and sleepily murmuring something about the sun shining too bright through the window.

But rather, it broke knowing that the man you were in love with would spend the rest of his days blaming himself. Endlessly asking himself questions of “What if?” or recounting the life that you two were supposed to live. The life where you were not torn away from him and he was not left mourning.

_You were supposed to be my forever._

The moon above you became distorted, your vision changing as if looking through a dimly lit kaleidoscope. The few beats that your heart had missed going unnoticed as a relief came to wash over your body, no longer feeling the ache of the bullet’s entry.

Before you could fight against the heaviness weighing them down, your eyes closed. But instead of impending darkness, you were greeted with the image of Spencer — beaming, arms open for you in await of your return into them.

“Told you I’d see you soon,” he looked happy. Stepping into the familiar warmth of his arms, a burst of light encapsulated the two of you. Peace washed over your soul, and with one last breath, you begged that it would Spencer’s too.

_I was supposed to see you soon._


End file.
